The replacement of laser processing nozzles on a laser processing head of a laser processing machine (e.g., on a laser welding head or on a laser cutting head) is a repetitive process.
A laser cutting head, and, therefore, also the cutting nozzle of a laser cutting system, is especially useful for laser cutting of flat metal sheets. To obtain optimum cutting results for various material thicknesses (e.g., various sheet metal thicknesses), different nozzles are used with the same laser cutting head of the laser cutting system. Sheet metal of various thicknesses can be loaded for processing onto a workpiece support of the laser processing machine using an automatic loader. However, automatic changing of the cutting nozzle is generally not performed. A preliminary requirement for fully automated changing of the nozzle is the optimization of the connection between the cutting nozzle and the laser cutting head. It is generally known to screw laser processing nozzles into a laser processing head, however, rotational motions require generally more effort than are normally performed automatically.